Help convicting the top polluters!

type:

Petition

by:

Deniz Zehra Tavli

ExxonMobil is under investigation by the New York Attorney General for allegedly lying about climate change. At the same time, a second landmark investigation is on the verge of being rolled out – targeting Exxon and 49 other mega-polluters.

Catastrophic weather events are getting worse and worse with climate change: Typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones destroy homes, ruin the chance for a healthy life for many around the world, and take lives and livelihoods – violating basic human rights worldwide. And the reckless development of fossil fuels by distant and faceless energy companies is to blame.

The Commission for Human Rights agreed to open an investigation after hearing formal demands from disaster survivors, advocates and NGOs. This investigation could be a game changer for the oil industry, forcing some of the world’s biggest corporations to be held accountable for misrepresenting the facts about climate change. It starts by putting the spotlight on Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Shell, and others.

It’s about time Big Oil has its day in court.Call on the Commission for Human Rights to open its investigation now and sign the petition!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded the highest number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in only one year since the start of reporting in the 1980s. The most recent surveillance data released by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe report that over 142 000 people were diagnosed with HIV infections in 2014 - only in Europe.

These numbers are alarming: HIV/AIDS still has an increasing regional and global drive. During the last decade the rate of new infections increased up to 80 %. More than ever it is important to commemorate the 1st of December as the declared World AIDS Day.

The civil society network AIDS Action Europe was established in 2004 and has grown to be one of the largest HIV-related networks in the region. Their network reaches beyond the borders of the European Union and covers all 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia and consists of 450 NGOs, national networks, AIDS service organisations, activists and community based groups of people living with HIV. Their mission is to bring together civil society to work towards a more effective response to the HIV epidemic in Europe and Central Asia.

Set a sign against ignorance towards HIV/AIDS and become a supporter of AIDS Action Europe.

Genci Angjellari is an investigative journalist. In November 2014 he was exploring alleged links between the Albanian mafia, business and politicians when two men on a motorbike attacked him. They punched him, held a knife to his throat and told him to stop his work. Days later the family fled to Norway.

The couple have been in Norway with their young daughter for nearly a year, going through the asylum process. But despite the Norwegian Immigration Appeals Board finding the family’s account credible, it has ruled that the family can safely be returned to Albania and seek police protection there – police protection that they have already asked for and been denied.

Their application was rejected by the Norwegian authorities. While they can appeal the decision, the Norwegian authorities do not have to wait until this is processed before implementing a deportation order. This means that the family are at serious risk of being forced back into a dangerous situation. Any day now they could be deported to Albania where they face intimidation, harassment or even death.

Genci Angjellari is not alone – investigative journalists in Albania are regularly threatened as a result of their work. Send a message to the Norwegian giverment via Amnesty International and plea against the deportation of Genci Angjellari!

Most people already know that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is found in many African countries. In reality however, FGM is a global human rights problem found in countries few automatically associate with the practice: From Brunei to Iraq, as well as countries in the West where immigrants have brought the practice, FGM is a threat to girls and young women.

The German-Iraqi NGO Wadi e.V. is now creating a feature-length documentary film that will expose FGM as a global problem hoping to change societies and save lives. Can a film really do that? Nearly a decade ago, Wadi began documenting and filming evidence of FGM in Kurdistan. They showed their short films to politicians, clerics, village elders, and shared them with the global TV and online media. These films helped change attitudes and even led to a law banning FGM in Kurdistan. Today the majority of Kurds oppose FGM.

Now Wadi wants to take it to the next level and has formed an alliance of anti-FGM activists from Asia to the Middle-East as well as in the West who have begun filming documentary evidence of FGM and collecting statistics. Through petitions they want to lobby governments, release relevant snippets of video as well as the full documentary to local and world media and thus use this evidence to show the public and influence politicians to change the law or enforce existing legislations. As they achieved in Kurdistan, the goal is to shame politicians into action!

Help Wadi e.V. by supporting their new documentary, become one of their activists and help them shape the campaign! In any case: Like, share and spread the message through your channels!

The temperatures in the Central-European hemispheres have dropped to the freezing point- winter has come! While each lucky one with a warm home to return to after a long exhausting day of work, thousands of men, women and children are piling up at Europe's doorstep - hungry and unimaginably exhausted, a lot more than any of us can be, because they are fleeing bombs and violent extremists taking over their home towns! But with the spark of great hope that someone soon will just open one door, and the nightmare will be over.

Still a gesture of solidarity and welcoming from political decision makers fails to appear: European governments are reacting to terror by closing borders and rejecting refugees' pleas for assistance. A chilling winter of death is settling in and we, global citizens, remain the best chance for those trapped by Europe's shameful walls.

Now our community can work with the United Nations to help them fund a plan to protect and transport thousands of people stranded along the border to safe centres. Not only can we unleash a fleet of buses and caravans to save lives, but our contribution can also fuel the desperately needed campaigning to fight hate and push nations everywhere to house hundreds of vulnerable refugee families throughout the winter.

There’s no time to lose! Join in to bring hope behind the fences! Donate an amount of your choice to the Avaaz team and answer hate with humanity!

Yesterday was the International Day of Tolerance. In times of international conflicts, wars und crisis as we are witnessing increaslingly these times, tolerance as a human attitude becomes more and more crucial especially in media, politics and in our daily lives.

This is also the main idea behind "Donate the hate", a project of the Centre for Democratic Culture (Zentrum Demokratische Kultur). What are they aiming on? The internet is currently overflowing with racist and xenophobic comments, especially on Social Media platforms- and especially against refugees. For every misanthropic, racist comment, "Donate the hate" makes a donation of 1 Euro to projects which help and support refugees like the ‘Aktion Deutschland Hilft’ campaign and ‘EXIT-Deutschland’, an initiative against right-wing extremism. In the end it's like a fine jar for hate speech, though it is not exactly a fine the so called "haters" pay, it is - as the projects webpage calls it- an involuntary donation.

Support this genius project answering to a serious problem of human kind with the best weapon it has: humour - and spread the idea, become a media supporter and feel free to share!

In a surprising turn of events, Shell's board of executives has officially endorsed resolution committing the company to take action against climate change. Still, Shell is lobbying UN representatives to block any kind of real climate solutions in the run-up to the UN climate talks in Paris this year.

We can't let Shell's stated commitment to fight climate change be mere greenwashing. If Shell's executives are really serious about tackling climate change, then they have to stop meddling with the climate talks.

The UN negotiations are no place for fossil fuel lobbyists -- they are where global leaders, scientists and activists meet annually and decide on real climate action. The stakes are very high at this year's talks in Paris. A climate deal that reduces carbon emissions across countries and industries seems in sight, so fossil fuel companies should not be allowed to obstruct the talks.

If Shell's executives are real about climate change then it should stop meddling with UN climate negotiations. Sign the petition asking Shell to take real steps to tackle climate change - pledge to keep your lobbyists away from the UN climate talks in Paris!

Phyoe Phyoe Aung is the Secretary General of prominent student union the All Burma Federation Student Union. Student unions are illegal in Burma.

Imprisoned since March 2015, Phyoe Phyoe Aung is awaiting trial for charges relating to the demonstrations she helped organise, on behalf of students unhappy with a new education law passed by the government the previous year. The students say the law limits free speech and democracy in the education system, and are calling for the government to amend it.

Both Phyoe Phyoe Aung and Lin Htet Naing are prisoners of conscience: they have peacefully exercised their human right to free speech by criticising the government and attending protests – yet they are imprisoned for it, and facing many years behind bars if found guilty of the criminal charges they’ve been dealt.

Help ensuring that they are not tortured or ill-treated in detention and have regular access to family members and lawyers! Take action and sign the petition demanding the release of all imprisoned student protesters in Burma!

Every minute governments back fossil fuels with $10 million but big polluter nations claim they don't have funds to aid the most vulnerable countries dealing with floods, droughts and storms.

Now poorer nations say if they can't count on the money, they can't sign up to a global climate deal due to be finalised in weeks. It is a deadly deadlock, but if enough people demand public funds to be shifted from dirty energy right now, there is a chance to unlock the finance to help those most in need.

In days, 80 ministers from across the world meet to try and find a solution. Let's get one million of us behind this push -- we'll deliver our call to the key ministers to expose the lie and shame them into action.

Sign the petition to undermine the spurious arguments and help breathing life into the talks taking place right now at the planetary climate deal in Paris!

Demand for palm oil is growing - and fast. At the moment, most of it ends up in hundreds of food products - from margarine and chocolate to cream cheese and oven chips - although it's also used in cosmetics and increasingly, for use in biodiesel.

But the cost to the environment and the global climate is devastating - to feed this demand, tropical rainforests and peatlands in South East Asia are being burned down annually to provide land for oil palm plantations. Every year tens of thousands die prematurely from respiratory illness. But this year it's worse than ever! Children are being evacuated. Some have even died from the smoke caused by the fires.

These fires are a man-made crisis driven by decades of forest destruction by some of the biggest palm oil and paper companies in the world. Greed is winning over the survival of people and amazing wildlife like orangutans and tigers.

Don't look away, act and sign the petition adressing President Joko Widodo and CEOs of palm oil producers, traders and buyers to stop this severe destruction of Indonesian forests and the suffering of all of its inhabitants!